The Only Hope For Me
by NeonFlame
Summary: two killjoys, one left for dead, the other not so lucky. She has powers- so does her twin brother who rescues her. What they see will send them running to the Fabulous Killjoys in an attempt to save one of them, but will they be on time? rated T becuz idk
1. Prologue

_They've got us_ he whispers in my mind. He'll come get me, we'll be safe! But I fear it's too late already. It is. My head turns to face the threat from down the road but I don't really need to. I can feel them there, walking slowly towards me, savoring the moments before my death.

He and I, we escaped. From that awful "hospital" where they experimented on us, "documented our progress", and tortured us. Our minds are connected, everything he feels or thinks, so do I. Just a little bonus from the radiation poisoning that changed us when the bombs went off, ending the world.

My hair, long and auburn but streaked through with neon green, blue, and purple, blows around me, catching the light of the setting sun. It's pretty, I realize, but that doesn't matter. Not when you're about to die.

We should have stayed together dammit! We had for such a long time since escaping, but we had to separate to get farther away from our pursuers. Together, we were the best team ever, we could do anything, face down any threat. But alone? We were so much less powerful alone. _I'm on my way. Hold on just a little longer, _ he says. Yet he's still at least 2 miles away.

My heart pounds in my chest. There is no pause between beats. Just one sustained beat: onetwoonetwoonetwo. Adrenaline pours into my veincs. Everything is in focus, from the Dracs 100 feet away from me, to the battery abandoned in the sand on the other side of the road.

They move forward, five tall "men" wearing their all white and masks. Held in their hands are their massive white ray-guns. They are trained to fight and kill- mercilessly. Five to one, and I am already injured and weak from running for the past months.

I have one minute at the pace they're walking at. Sure, they could just end this now- shoot me from there. But that wouldn't be as fun. Yes, they are robots, but they still like to torture, rip victims limb from limb, shoot them slowly, and watch as they bleed out.

I know he will never make it. I send him everything. Every bit of love I have tucked away in me, every piece of advice I possibly can, and every thought I've ever had of him, and tell him to stay away from here- to turn back and run as fast as he can. He's my soul mate and I love him more deeply than I ever thought possible, and now I'm leaving him alone.

I turn my body towards them, to fight uselessly. I pull my bright green ray-gun from its holster on my back and also pull the smaller bright orange ray-gun from my thigh. I know this is hopeless but I must fight. Must at least give him a chance. I will be gone- ghosted in less than a minute. If I don't fight, it will all have meant nothing: breaking out, escaping, being in love, nothing. Not unless I fight.

Their walk bring them closer to me with every passing moment. The road is deserted like so many others. No one will ever notice our fight. No one will ever notice me fall. No one will ever notice me die as they murder me slowly. Such has been the way of our lives since the end of the world, no one ever noticed.

No one will notice him here in several minutes. I told him not to come but he will anyways. I am leading him to his death. But I can do nothing to help it- he will come for me no matter what.

They are here now. One says my "name": test subject 4248a. It's not my real name of course, but, of course, that's what THEY call me. I am not a person to them, merely a test subject that went wayward and needs to be controlled before it does any damage. "Controlled". That's what they called these ruthless murders.

Now they circle me- are you wondering why I haven't shot them? Here I'll tell you: you shoot one, the rest all shoot at once, you have to get away before you can shoot. I briefly consider kicking and fighting with all the martial arts training I got when I was younger- but that wouldn't do any good. These are beings made of metal and plastic- a roundhouse kick wouldn't do any good in this situation.

_NO! Keep fighting Ne! you CAN'T give up! You can't! just…. Keep… fighting…_ his voice fades away. I know my death is near so I've cut him off from me. They lift their ray-guns and slowly pull the trigers.

"NO!" it's not even in my head any more. Dammit, he came to rescue me. Now he will die, along with me. The bolts hit me and I fall, then it all went black.

His name was Spontaneous Combustion, and I am Neon Flame. This is where my story begins.


	2. Waking Up

I own my characters- please don't take them or I will be forced to hunt you down. Have a nice day and- review? Please? It takes one second and makes a person's day oh so much nicer! Have a nice one!

I'm floating, lost in nothing and everything at the same time. I struggle to remember what just happened. I remembered the Dracs, their horrible vampire masks seeming to grin down at me as they lifted their ray-guns. I remembered Spontaneous Combustion coming after me, screaming something, and then it all went black. I guess I must have died or something.

An object nudges my side, and I feel like screaming in agony. My whole body is one aching ball of fire. I can't breathe, my chest is too tight, there is too much pain. I can't be dead unless I'm in Hell, which would seriously suck. But no, I haven't done anything in my 19 years worthy of Hell, at least I think.

The nudge again, and the terrible pain again. This time my eyes flare open and I realize that somehow, miraculously, I'm alive. But it doesn't feel like a miracle as my body throbs like one big broken bone. I gasp and hear someone sigh exasperatedly.

"Fi, I think she's comin around. You got anything for her?" comes a pleasant feminine voice. My eyes begin to focus in the blistering desert sun, and I can see that there is a young woman, probably my age, kneeling over me. She has dirty-blonde hair that falls to her mid-back. Her eyes are a startling dark brown and her skin in pale despite the desert situation.

She looks down at me and brushes the hair out of my face. "Playing with Dracs fun?" she asks with a smirk. "Because I know that I for one try to avoid them."

Is she messing with me? "Where's Spon?" I try to ask through the thickness in my throat. It feels as though I haven't drunk anything in several days, and I probably haven't.

The woman shifts nervously and quickly says, "Hey Fi, get over here!" She pulls me to my feet gently and supports most of my weight as the man she calls Fi gets up and walks toward us.

He's a tall thin man, also about my age. From the start he looks shockingly familiar. He has jet-black hair that sweeps over his forehead and curls down the nape of his neck. His eyes are exactly like mine, that changey light green/blue depending on the light and our clothes. His face reminds me of what I had always thought elves would look like, narrow sharp angles with a mischievous look. I had been told I had the same face.

"Final Stand, nice to meet you…" he pauses as if waiting for my name as he extends his hand toward me.

"Neon Flame," I manage to croak out. Even his voice is familiar. Is it possible that I know this man? Who is he? And i WHERE i/ is Spontaneous Combustion?

He looks me up and down with a strange expression in his currently light blue eyes. "What?" I ask self-consciously.

Suddenly, he sweeps me into a tight hug but sets me down as I practically scream in pure agony from the many bruises I must have sustained from the fight.

"NE!" he screams in delight. He then brushes his black hair away from his forehead to reveal a small birthmark in the shape of what almost looks like a teardrop. The twin to which was on my upper arm.

I gasp. My twin brother, standing in front of me, unharmed, not a Drac, still alive. I attack him in a hug and start blabbering incoherently as the tears form and splatter from my face on to the dusty ground. My baby brother, right here, right now, and all right.

About that time, we begin to notice that A) my body is not strong enough right now to support being upright and B) the other Killjoy is still standing there with us.

Final Stand gently lowers me to the ground and sat next to me, holding my hand. The young woman chuckles and says, "Secret Savior, at your service. And might I ask why my husband just attacked you and you him?"

I turn and look with wide eyes at my brother. "Husband? Good job little bro." I can't talk any more but Secret Savior seems to be satisfied with my answer. She hands me a bottle of water and begins bandaging up my arms.

Fi and I talk for hours then. About what we'd done since the end of the world when we were separated. He tells me all about how he'd met Secret Savior when she had old-fashionedly stabbed a Drac with a dagger right before it could shoot him. They'd been traveling together ever since and had fallen madly in love with each other. About a year ago, he tells me, they had started considering themselves married.

I tell him all about the hospital where Spon and I had been kept in Battery City. About the horrible "experiments" they had done on us. "Did any of them work?" he asks me.

With remembered pain in my eyes I look into his. "I have no way of knowing. I should be able to fight better, they were trying to make us in to the "perfect soldiers" for their sick war against humanity."

We continue talking. I cant' feel Spon's thought but assume he's sleeping; we usually can't see each other's dreams. Finally I voice the concern thast been festering in my mind since I had awoken. "Where's MY husband Secret? Where's Spontaneous Combustion?"

They both look up at me with the most pained expressions I have ever seen. Secret begins to try to say something but chokes on her words as her eyes fill with tears. Fi blinks back his own tears and squeezes my hand tightly. "Ne, I am i so i/ sorry-" he tries to begin but I rip my hand from his and bolt to my feet before he can finish.

"Ne, hon, you can't get up," Secret Savior tries to start but I'm already sprinting away. Running as fast as my strong legs will carry me. Running away from the truth, the horrible and awful truth that my love, my life, my whole existence, Spontaneous Combustion, is dead.


	3. Memories

The memories come like a tidal wave, crushing me under their weight and threatening to drown me if I let them.

_"Hey" he says. _

_I don't even know his name. All I know is that he's in the cell next to mine. I spin around, trying to find the source of his voice. Then I smile, noticing the small grate connecting the two prison cells. _

_I duck down to the floor and peek through, a pair of big brown eyes meeting my light blue-green ones. He smiles gently, small crinkles forming around said brown eyes._

"_I'm Spontaneous Combustion, better known here as 'Test Subject 2874D'", he finishes the last part in a mimicking tone, trying to copy the robotic voices of the Dracs. "So, who would you be?" he asks._

_I try to find my voice. It's been so very long since I last spoke. "N-Neon Flame," I manage to stutter out. Then more clearly and with as much sarcasm as he'd injected into his words, "Better known around here as 'Test Subject 4248A'", and attempt a smile. _

"_Well, Ne, it's alright if I call you Ne right? It's delightful to finally talk to you after sitting here all alone for the past month. I kept trying to get your attention but for some reason you were either too out of it or too withdrawn to notice," he says, those eye crinkles reappearing as he smiles. _

_I like his smile, hell, I'd love anyone's smile if I could see it! After being locked up for the last six months with no human contact, Dracs and the bastards running this place don't count as human, it was nice to see someone. _

"_You can call me Ne if I can call you Spon. And the latter," I answer. I've been so withdrawn for the past at least 5 months that I feel like I've lost the capability to feel. The first month I had been in denial of being stuck here. I was positive that I would get out of here. So yes, I've been withdrawn, until now. Now this stranger is pulling me out of my submission and case of numbness. Already I feel tingles in my stomach and fingertips, things I haven't felt since before the end of the world. Since before I lost my entire family in the bombings._

"_Alright then Ne. You know, we're going to get out of here. I promise you that. I don't know how or when but we will leave this place," he says with such an air of confidence that I don't want to crush his hopes. Don't want to tell him that everyone feels that way at first, but then they never get out._

_So instead I just reply in the most hopeful way I can manage. "Whatever you say," I respond, working to fix a smile on my face for his sake. _

I cough and curl in even tighter on myself. I wish now more than ever for that confidence that he always felt. That way that he had of always making it seem like it would work out all right. But no matter what I did, the memories kept coming.

_The Dracs came to my cell and I fear the worst. They are going to "control" me. To a human, that means murder. It happens randomly in the cells, Drac comes to your cell, you get dragged out, never heard from again. The end. _

_They open the door and drag me out. I close my eyes and wait for it to happen. For them to just shoot me with their laser guns. But they don't. Instead I feel myself being pulled along down corridors and more long corridors. Finally the stop and I find myself at a white door, big surprise, everything in here is white. From the halls, to the doors, to our prison jumpsuits, even down to the metal of the bars in our cells. No color, no emotion, just blankness. Because they're BL/ind. _

_The open the door and roughly push me inside. The Boss, Korse, is inside and I gasp. I'd heard of him, sure. But up close and personal, he's even creepier. His bald head shines under the blindingly bright fluorescent lights. His suit, white of course, is perfect, not a single crinkle or fold. _

_He turns to look at me, and his gray eyes hold no emotion. "Leave me alone with the girl," he says in his gruff voice. The Dracs bow and back out of the room, leaving me alone with this demon of a man. "Neon Flame," he starts, shocking me severely. He, of all people should be calling me 4248A! "The girl with the unknown powers."_

_I gasp again, staring straight into those hard, cold, eyes. He knows about those? But how? I never use them! In fact, I try even harder to forget about them completely. Forget about how I'm different than I was before the bombings. Forget that my brother, James, and I were both hit with something radioactive that changed us forever. Forget that that these powers weren't enough to save him. I had lost him in a raid a few months later, and my only conclusion when I couldn't find him was that he was dead._

"_You didn't think that they would disappear if you didn't use them did you? Oh no, it doesn't work like that. You see, they'll grow stronger with our help, but they won't disappear with disuse," he says. I can't believe this. Is he trying to win me over? After locking me up for half a year? Not a chance in the Hell that we were already living in. _

"_Did you know?" he begins again. All I can do know is glare daggers at him. "That, with the right help, someone not even hit with what you were, can develop these powers? In fact! We've been trying it out on someone you may recognize!" he finishes with an evil smirk. He snaps his fingers and the Dracs return, dragging Spon between them._

"_No. You couldn't! You _Monster_!" I yell at Korse. _

"_Oh, but my dear, it's already been done!" he says, that evil smirk playing across his face again._

_I run to Spon and wrap my arms around him. This is the first time we've ever really seen each other outside of our grate, which we talk through every day, most of the day. _

I don't know if this will work, but hey there Ne. If you can hear me, tap three times on my back,_ I hear in my mind and know instantly that he has the same powers as me. Well at least some of them. I work to keep myself calm and simply tap three times on his back as instructed._

_Pulling away from him, I see him smile. Then he's in my head again. _This is how we're getting out, Ne. We're going to use these powers that they gave me against them.

I'm sobbing. That was how we got out! We talked for hours on end in our minds, planning, plotting, and drawing up mental maps. I had the power to see fragments of the future, alone it wasn't much but when we both combined our power it was plenty. Together we escaped. Using their own gifts against them.

Finally I decide it's been enough with the crying. I say my goodbyes to Spon, over and over again in my head, then I stand up and go back. Back to my new and old family. To my brother and his wife/detonator. I still have no idea why they're going with that, guess now's as good a time as any to ask.

Walking back to their camp, I see Final Stand pacing back and forth in front of the tent. Seeing me, he runs to me and captures me in a brotherly hug of comfort. Telling me that he knew and accepted that I would not be ok, but we would work for it together. Secret Savior, hearing the commotion, walked out of the tent.

I loosen myself from my brother's hold and walk to Secret. "Thank you," I begin. "For saving my life, and trying to save Spon." A tear slips out of her left eye and she pulls me in for a tight hug. As she embraces me, Fi ducks under the flap, into the tent. A minute later, he walks back out, carrying leather pouch.

"Ne," he begins in the same cautious tone I recognized from them telling me about Spon. "When Spontaneous Combustion was killed, we couldn't take his body with us and we didn't want to leave it for the vultures," he says, and I know where this is heading.

I nod, acknowledging what he is saying. "That's all right. He always told me to cremate him when he died. Always said it jokingly, but still," I say, somehow managing to keep calm.

Fi half smiles gently, taking my hand with the one not holding the pouch. "Before we did, we err… removed things we thought he'd want for you," he says and opens the pouch, dropping my hand and turns in over into his. A bullet hanging from a chain, black and neon green cutoff gloves that I made for him, a ring saying "Love, Peace, Mind, Body, Spirit" around the silver band, and a letter.

I draw I a shuddering breath and pick up the objects one by one. First the necklace. I pull my own half of the equation from under my shirt. Mine is a black agate heart wrapped in a silver ring. "I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love," I whisper referring to what I always used to say to him. Bullets referring to the crap I brought him into with the powers and the constant running. And he still gave me his love. We always wore these necklaces, always. Now as I slip the bullet around my neck to rest against both my beating and unbeating hearts, I feel he is still with me, like we're both still wearing our necklaces.

Next I pull on the cutoff gloves, the neon green zig zag pattern on the back catching the desert sun's harsh light. Finally I place the ring on my left ring finger, the words "Spirit and Love" showing on the top. Then I take the letter. I know exactly what it is: a "If you're reading this, then I'm dead" letter. We both wrote one in case the unthinkable happened, as it had.

I straighten my head to look at Fi and Secret as I take a deep, steadying breath. "Well. Only one thing to do now."

Secret tilts her head to the side and squints in my direction as she raises a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "What's that sweety?" she asks in her usual kind tone.

"Move forward."


	4. Bonding

A/N *facepalm* this took me way too long to write... i'm so sorry to any readers I may have! You have full permission to shoot me... *sigh* hope you like this! there were a few changes:  
>-Neon Flame and Final Stand are not 19 as said in chapter 1- they are 22 Secret Savior is 20<p>

-Ne and Fi were running together for 2 years after the bombs- making them 17 when they were separated

-Neon was on her own for several months before being captured- long enough for her to turn 18

-Neon and Spon were together for almost 3 years after escaping

hope this gives you a better understanding of what's going on! if you are confused please send me a message and I can explain what's confusing! :D

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><p>3rd POV<p>

"She's out," Secret Savior says softly to her husband. She takes his hand and makes him look her in the eyes. "How are you dealing with this all?"

Final Stand glances up to meet her warm gaze. He sighs quietly and blinks his eyes. "I—I'm not going to lie. This isn't easy. I mean, I didn't even know that she had survived! And now… now she's nearly lost anyways. But I still wonder…"

"Wonder what? Secret asks. It's hard for her to watch him in pain like this. After all, his sister just lost her love; Secret knows Fi won't be able to not imagine the same thing happening to him, and losing her.

Fi fidgets with his red shirt, picking at the loose strands of fabric and twisting it back and forth between his fingers. "I was wondering if our powers would still work… we used to be able to hear each other's thoughts. But only if the other was willing," he finished quickly, his words tumbling quickly from his lips.

Secret nods her acknowledgement. "When she wakes up we can talk with her. But for now, just let her sleep, she needs it. I gave her a sedative that'll keep her out for a good eight hours but we're running low on it. We're due for another BL/I raid anyways."

Final Stand squeezes her hand and murmurs, "Thank you. Thank you for helping my sister. We'll get more soon, I promise."

Secret smiles, her gentle eyes warming Final's aching heart, "She's my sister too," she says.

1st POV

I yawn, stretching my arms high above my head and cracking my joints. Sitting up, I realize that I am alone in the tent; Secret and Fi must have gone out to keep watch or just to talk.

I pull my hair into my signature double low braids with a low swoop covering my forehead. I hear some rustling outside the tent before my brother's face pops in to see me.

"Have a nice sleep?" he asks, tilting his head to the side.

Scowling, I respond, "You drugged me."

At this point, Secret makes her appearance, pulling the tent flap to the side, and stepping in to sit beside me on the ground. "Aaaactually…. That was me…. I thought you needed the sleep, and the sedative was supposed to prevent dreams. We stole it from BL/I for the rough nights were nightmares are bound to happen."

I laugh quietly, the first time since losing Spon. It's just too difficult to stay mad and the sweet Killjoy. My blood sugar plummets as I stand too quickly, and I end up toppling over onto the canvas floor. "Ouch…" I murmur.

"Grub!" Fi announces, holding out a can of Power Pup. I groan at the nasty stuff but choke it down, at least it'll give me some measure of energy.

Secret and Fi exchange a glance, and I know I missed something while I was out. She gestures to him with her hand and they converse non-verbally for the next few moments before my brother sighs and sits down opposite me and Secret stands to leave the tent. "Good luck, you two," she says before leaving.

I raise one of my eyebrows in a questioning expression. Fi bites his lower lip and looks at the ground before taking one of my hands in both of his and closed his eyes.

_Neon?_ The thought is filled with static, and only barely audible but I hear it, in my mind. Closing my eyes I return the thought stream but say nothing, just allowing my mind to nuzzle his.

We sat that way, letting out minds re-familiarize with each other. Our breathing and heartbeats fall into synch in our meditative state. In this way, we tell each other everything that had happened since we were separated in that raid years ago. Though we may not consciously remember everything, melding our minds like this allows us to things even we have forgotten. Such as the things I tired to block out, the tortures, the testing BL/I did on me, and some of my… closer… moments with Spontaneous Combustion. We see everything as the other saw it, and as fresh and clear as if it was happening right now.

I see him running away after the explosion where we were separated. I see my necklace, which I had taken off and placed in my back pocket before the raid to keep from being caught on something, fall in front of him. I had lost it that day; I guess that's what happened. I feel his pain when he calls my name and I don't respond, buried under the ruble and knocked unconscious as I was at the moment. He paws through the ruble, still smoldering in some spots, looking for me. When he doesn't find me after several hours and he can just barely hear the engine of an oncoming Drac squad, he runs until he collapses. He waits for death to come, to join him with me again, but when it doesn't and the car catches up with him, he rasies his raygun. He places it to his temple just as he had the day I awoke with him and Secret. The car stops and Secret runs out, pulls the gun down and drags him into the car. She nurses him back to health and they decide to stay together. After a year or so, he asks her to marry him, screw detonators, they want a real wedding. So they hunt down a Killjoy willing to perform the ceremony, and they are married.

Then comes the part I've been dreading. The day they find me and Spon is killed. I see the whole day: Secret driving her car with Fi passed out in shotgun; them seeing Spon running, his eyes wide and panicked and Secret following him; The Dracs that were hunting us, seen through Secret and Fi's eyes.

Then it's even worse. I see as I am cornered by the Dracs. I see Spon sprinting towards us. I see the majority of the rays meant for me intercepted by his body. I see my body fall to the ground as a ray in my upper arm and leg, already healed now by Secret and BL/I medicine, hits me. Finally, I see Fi and Secret leave the car and shoot down the Dracs. They run to us, Secret checks our pulses, declares me just barely alive, while Spon, my beloved Spon, is dead. Fi looks me up and down, and his thoughts get cloudy at this point. He brings a hand to my face and removes my mask, revealing my features, so similar to his own. I see his tears fall in recognition. He pulls my unconscious body to his own, and sobs as he tells Secret who I am. She works doubly hard to save me after that, using almost all of the medicine they had raided from BL/I. And all the rest I know already.

We open our eyes simultaneously. I pull my hand back from his and wrap him in a tight embrace. Tears steam relentlessly down our faces, drenching the tops of our shirts in saltwater. He strokes my long hair and I hold him close. As we pull away, a small smile graces his lips. "Alive, all this time. But those bastards had you for over a year! And those things… that they did to you… those tests….", he says, his voice filling with more hatred with every word. "I swear to any god that'll listen that I will hunt down every single one of those sons of bitches and make them pay for that!"

I bring my arm to his face and wipe away the tears before doing the same for myself. "I'm out now. Let's not risk it shall we?"

He rolls his eyes and shrugs his shoulders. "Still wanna kill 'em" he mumbles.

I take his hands In mine and press our palms together, gently brushing his mind. As we hold our hands there something begins to press at the back of my mind. It becomes more insistant. "Fi?... Can you—can you feel that?..."

"I… uh… what is that?"

And then our minds are consumed in a rapid-fire succession of images, sounds, voices, colors, names.

Finally it ends and we both open our eyes instantly, our breathing short and ragged. "What the holy fuck…." Fi says, as he pulls his hands from mine and holds one to the bridge of his nose.

I sit, staring blankly at the floor, allowing the images to sink in. One stands out in my mind. It's something I cannot fathom, cannot ever imagine. It is myself kissing another man, one with jet-black hair wearing an olive green vest over a yellow and black shirt. We're sitting by a fire, and his arms are around me, our lips touching. And I'm allowing it? "What the fuck…" I say in agreement with my brother.

Then the name comes back to me of the midnight haired man,"What the fuck was that and who the hell is Fun Ghoul?"

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><p>ooh... a cliffhanger! well... an attempted one...<p>

Read and Review! Reviews=Brain food for the author!

I shall try to get the next chapter up in the next week or two- I need to colab with a friend who will be making her appearance in the next chapter or so :)


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